Jayhawks and Tigers, Oh My!!!-- Part 1: What's In An Athletic Name

From KCUT NPR  "Civil War origins of the Kansas Jayhawk and Missouri Tiger" by Lisa Rodriguez.

Since I have been writing about the University of Missouri a lot lately, and because the name Tigers which is used by their teams, also dates to the Civil War, I found this article to be of interest.

For more than 100 years, an athletic contest between the University of Missouri Tigers and the University of Kansas Jayhawks has been a bitter rivalry with bragging rights on the line.  Before Mizzou left the Big 12 Conference to join the Southeastern Conference the rivalry was even bigger.

But, this rivalry can be dated even back to the Civil War.

According to the University of Kansas, the state in the 1850s was a fierce battlefield between those who were "Free Staters and those who were pro-slavery.  At the time, people started referring to those across the region as jayhawkers, which was a combination of two bird names.  The blue jay is a noisy, quarrelsome bird and the sparrow hawk a stealthy hunter.

The nickname was meant as a warning:  "Don't mess with a Jayhawker!!"

The term originally was used to refer to both Free Staters and Pro-Slavers.  But eventually it came to be used for the Free Staters.  When the KU football team played their first game in 1890, it adopted the name.

The first illustration of the mythical Jayhawk  in 1912 wore shoes for kicking opponents.  These boots/shoes are made for walking.

So That's Why the Jayhawk Wears Shoes.  I Was Always Wondering.  --Old Secesh